Google Assistant can do basic troubleshooting on Pixel 2 phones

It seems Google is testing a nifty new ability in its Google Assistant. The Assistant can now reportedly help the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL users with basic troubleshooting on their phones.

First spotted by folks at Android Police, the new feature has been found to be working on both Pixel 2 running on Android 8.1 dev preview builds in the United States. It doesn’t work in other markets or with original Pixel smartphones. It is quite likely that Google will officially introduce the feature with the final release of Android 8.1. Don’t expect it to support phones other than Pixel 2 for the time-being.

How does this work?

When the users ask Google Assistant why something is not working on their phone, the Assistant suggests steps to solve the problem. If they are then able to fix the problem, it’s great, else Google Assistant can even contact support on users’ behalf.

Some of the cases in which the users have been able to trigger troubleshooting on the Google Assistant include battery health check and problems with Bluetooth connectivity or camera functions.

No official documentation is available at this point, which is normal given the feature seems to be in testing and might not even up end up in the final version. Google regularly tests new features, depending on the feedback, they are added or removed from the final versions of the products.

In more experimental features, Google has been found to be testing predictive search suggestions in its Search app. Google is trying to suggest search terms to the users based on their location, time and other factors, which might impact what an user would want to search.